The potency of human voices singing with collective purpose is a thing most people can experience year-round. But the approach of Christmas gives it a peculiar intensity – and for me it begins on Advent Sunday, which I always spend in Cambridge, at the chapel of Clare College where they manage Advent well.
The debt owed by the British choral world to Oxbridge chapel choirs is huge. They’re like an incubator for ensemble singers who pass on into cathedral choirs or join the freelance circuit that feeds major churches. The outstanding talents make for one of the elite groups that set standards for the rest of us: the Sixteen, Tallis Scholars, Tenebrae, Polyphony… through to the solo-status brilliance of the Gesualdo 6 or Voces 8.
